Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

It had been a long time since Seth felt <Calm Reaction> act up. He left the building behind and changed from his armor into the cloak.

If there was any lesson in what happened today, it was that the world was still complicated. It had shown Seth that even if the world looked calm, it wasn't. There were a lot of things he didn't know about and even more things the people of this world had no idea about.

How many other creatures and races had invaded without people knowing? What else was hiding in this giant city?

Y-City was not safe. Seth had had his suspicion here and there, but this was a waking call. This was just one of many things Seth had no idea about and the district itself had a hard time dealing with. He had no interest in playing the babysitter for a xenophobic government.

It was okay to take care of things that blatantly spit in his face, but he really didn't feel like becoming the hero of this place. It was time to hurry and get to Delta. There he could be a simple citizen like he had been in Ora.

These were the expectations he had from a district that was co-managed by natives, demons, and the Chrona Empire. At least stuff like these weasel things would have a much harder time doing something like this over there.

He didn't tell the others when he returned to the church. There was no need for unnecessary worry. They would soon be gone anyway.

~ Did you calm down, yet? ~

Al'Zalsa had kept silent the whole time. She was the only one in their group that knew what had happened. Although hasty, she agreed with his actions. It was also good that he came in contact with this side of the world on a smaller scale.

The lich had seen a lot of terrible things in her life, and she was convinced that Urth would not get around experiencing those things. The world itself already seemed very unique, but there was an uncountable number of unpredictable races with unpredictable magics and skills waiting to enter his place.

The Next day Seth finally set a date of departure. He wanted to reach lv. 40 in the next week and depart from Y-City in the week after.

In preparation, he locked himself up in the smithy. Originally, he wanted to go at things slowly which would have allowed him to save some of the more expensive items for later. Instead, he did these things now.

First was a new staff for Alison. Although he had made the "Storm Caller", she could only use it after reaching lv. 40. He was forced to use the materials he had ordered to make a staff, to make a staff. At least Evee would be able to use this item after Alison changed to the "Storm Caller".

For Alison's staff, he had originally ordered a <Mana Crystal> and piece of <Treant Wood>. Both were rare materials and not cheap. Both materials had a high affinity for magic, but no strong elemental properties.

Following his experience with the "Storm Caller" Seth made the new staff with a similar style. The only difference was the way the wood grasped the <Mana Crystal>. It looked much more organic, and the staff ended in a unified tip.

Unlike the staff, Seth went ahead and used the method of making a soul armament first before infusing it into the item to enchant it. He could not do this before because the <Storm Sphere> already had an enchantment and he did not want the enchantments to interfere with each other.

Using a big soul from the Tuatha de he forged a mirror image of the staff he just made and infused it into the item. The result was quite satisfactory. Except for the effects, it was only slightly inferior to the "Strom Caller"

< Arcane Wand

Epic

Mag. Damage: 1100

Durability: 1500

1.+100% Magic Damage

2.-70% Skill Cost

3. 50% Chant reduction

4.+50% Mana Regeneration

5. Generates Active Skill: Mana drain

6.+15% Chance to add a random curse to an attack

7. +400 mana

A wand created by Journeyman Smith heavily focusing on its arcane properties. Any caster would be happy to wield this mysterious product of special techniques.>

Why did the system call it a wand? It took Seth a moment of thought before he got an idea why. Although it had the length of a staff, it had no properties to smash someone's head with it. It was purely a medium for casting magic.

A staff on the other hand could even be something that could not be used for casting magic at all. This was the explanation Seth came up with. Whether it was true or not was a different question.

Next on his list were some special items. Since he had gotten his hands on a huge chunk of <Fey Metal> he wanted to make something with it. The material had a higher conductivity to magic than even <Mithril>, so it was perfect for magic accessories.

But first, he had to refine it into <Fey Steel>. He had found the refining method in the church's library. Unlike other items like <High-Quality Steel> where he had to add something to refine the metal, he only needed to burn away the impurities within.

Seth started by cutting the huge sword into manageable pieces and put them into the furnace. He soon noticed that this was harder than expected. He had to be very careful in manipulating the temperature in the furnace.

The point at which the impurities would burn away was very close to the temperature when the metal would start evaporating. The heat was not as high as that of <Dusk Ore> but the delicate process was just as difficult.

<Ding! Your ability Pyrokinesis lv. 3 has become Pyrokinesis lv. 4>

<Ding! Your skill Fire Affection lv. 6 has become Fire Affection lv. 7>

In his surprise, Seth almost burned a batch of metal. It had been such a long time since these skills leveled during his crafting process. With the increase in level, the task became slightly more manageable, and he soon finished turning the giant sword into twelve bars of <Fey Steel>.

<Fey Steel, Crafting Material, Rare

A glistening pure metal with a bright silver color. It surpasses most steels in durability and exceeds Mithril in magic conductivity.>

The bars each were big enough to make a long dagger or short sword from it, so one bar was more than enough for all kinds of accessories for one person.

For himself, Seth made a bracelet and a circlet. He kept the bracelet that gave him immunity to common and uncommon diseases. He really didn't like to get sick in a medical way.

The bracelet he made was similar to the earrings as he also used a piece of dragon glass, but he fused it with a medium-sized uncommon soul and used the enchantments for mana regeneration and willpower on it.

As for the design it was just a wide unadorned metal band with a piece of dragon glass that did not get in the way of the rest of his armor. He chose this compared to a more intricate work since he might have to recycle it in the future.

<Dragon Glas Bracelet

Epic

Durability: 700

1. +30% Magic Damage

2. +20% to the effect of all Fire-based damage

3. +20% to the effect of all Earth-based damage

4. +10% Earth Affinity

5. +25% Resistance to negative status effects (Mind)

6. +10% Mana regeneration

7.+35 Willpower

A simple bracelet from the hands of journeyman Smith the magic fire starter.>

For the circlet, he used a band of <Celestial bronze> and two bands of <Fey Steel> and braided them into a circlet holding a dragon glass shard at the forehead. He imbued the material with the ballad to reflect damage. When it was finished he infused the armament of the <Loyal Soul> he had worn until now.

Why did he even bother infusing a soul, especially the special souls into items instead of wearing them as soul armament? This was like asking why a magician used a staff to cast spells. With a physical medium, a fitting body, the soul became much more effective than as just a soul armament.

The resulting headgear showed that he was right. It was much stronger thanks to the different affinities and enchantments mixing with each other.

< Protective Crown

Epic

Mag. Defence: 610

1. +30% Magic Damage

2. Item is immune to Fire

3. +40% to the effect of all Fire-based damage

4. +20% to the effect of all Earth-based damage

5. +10% Earth Affinity

6. Creates passive Skill: Auto shield

A majestic crown with a vivid green dragon glass embedded in it was created by the deft hand of Journeyman Smith. A mysterious will to protect the owner fills the object.

Requirement: Seth Smith>

The improvement lay in the <Auto Shield>

<Passive Skill Auto Shield, No Cost

The area in a radius of 1m around the wearer is constantly monitored. Creates a shield with 450 durability in case of an attack. The shield is maintained for 1 minute. Generates up to 10 shields. 20% of the received Damage is reflected onto the attacker with an additional chance to cause burn damage >

He made similar bracelets and circlets for the caster girls before they set off to level up.

The following week was dominated by dungeon dives into high-level dungeons. The fought monsters of rising strength often 10 or more levels above them.

Supported was this endeavor not just by Seth's equipment.

Link was finally able to shine with his cooking skills. Not just the temporary buffs of his food had risen, but even the amount of food with permanent buffs increased.

Seth's disease resistance grew to 15%, his intelligence gained 3 points, and became 51. His Personality reached 35 and Luck became 34. The reason why his main stats did not grow was that's they were already too high for the gourmet hunter's food.

Alison and Evee on the other hand were able to benefit greatly from the food. The first had a terribly imbalanced build while Evee still had a lower level, as such her stats were not yet over the top.

If they wanted to make food that could benefit their main attributes, they needed ingredients from special monsters or wait for the hunter's skill to grow further. He could reliably make uncommon meals with permanent effect from uncommon ingredients, but he could not yet process rare ingredients or make a rare meal with uncommon ingredients.

The potions Evee and Alison brewed were also no small part of the reason they could pull through. They had made so many potions that permanently doped during the fights. Stamina potion, mana potion, and health potion kept them going as if they were tireless undead. Speed potion, strength potion, magic potion... all their attributes and stats were through the roof.

Even without Puffles who had not left the pet space or spoken to him since their last dungeon dive, they plowed through hordes of enemies. Evee grew into the role of healer, potion station, and debuff specialist. Her hexes often reached the monsters before a bolt or arrow could hit them.

They spent a lot of time in the dungeon and Seth had little chance to work on his skills during this time. It was a nice change at the start, but he soon started to miss the time in the smithy. His class had thoroughly taken root in his heart.

When Alison reached lv. 40 her power went through the roof with her new staff. And the "Arcane Wand" went over into Evee's hands. With the new power, their leveling speed became even faster. The next day Seth also reached lv. 40.

There were no great changes, except for the new system rights which were more inventory space and ...

Home call?

<Home call, No cost.

You can teleport to a settlement registered as your home once a day.>

It was literally the option to fast travel home, like in old MMOs. Now they had a failsafe for their journey. His walking technique and weapon mastery had also leveled up in the last few days.

By the end of the Week, Seth reached lv. 42 when Evee also finally reached lv. 40. The title that granted her 15% bonus experience played a big role in the speed she caught up to the others. Now everyone was at least lv. 40 and Monique was even getting close to lv. 50.

Considering that people around lv. 20 could attempt the journey to Beta or Delta, the party was strong enough to attempt it and bring a little girl along.

Of course, there had to be preparations made for Tekar's little daughter.